To provide inexpensive educational travel, intercultural understanding,
and an understanding of the natural environment through hostels, hostelling,
and outdoor recreation.

The Rachel Carson Trail

The Rachel Carson Trail extends for 34 miles from North Park to Harrison Hills Park
in Allegheny County north of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. The Trail was built
and is being maintained by the Pittsburgh
Council of American Youth Hostels.

Hiker Alerts - January 2000

Follow the blazes at all times; if the map in the Trail Guide conflicts with
the blazes, follow the blazes.

August 22, 1999: At the request of the landowner, a half-mile section of the
Rachel Carson Trail in Frazer Township has been closed to hikers. A temporary detour from Agan Park to Murray Hill Estates along Springdale
Hollow Road has been marked with signs along the trail for now. Trail
maintenance volunteers will begin scouting for a permanent route through
this area; when established, that route will be publicized in the AYH Golden
Triangle Newsletter, as well as other media.

Going north
for a little less than two miles on the Trail from the junction of Pittsburgh
Street (sometimes referred to as Freeport Rd.) and Riddle Run Road (sometimes
referred to as Springdale Hollow Road) in Springdale, you will encounter a
double plastic blaze on a telephone pole with no blazes in view beyond that
point. The Trail is closed at the double-blazed pole. Blazes beyond that point
have been blacked out.

Going southbound, after passing the radio transmission tower just beyond
(south of) Murray Hill Estates, the Trail turns right, into the woods,
crosses a narrow, open, power line right-of-way, parallels a small creek to
the left, and then traverses a small hillside below a trailer court. About
halfway across the traversed hillside, the blazing ends, with subsequent
blazes being blacked out. The Trail has been closed at the point you
encounter the blacked-out blazing.

If you have the Rachel Carson Trail Guide topographic map set, you may
reference Map #3: the Trail has been closed from point "T" to
point "R".

Due to development in Hampton Township, the Rachel Carson Trail may be
bulldozed between Indian Spring Road and Route 8. Be alert for this
possibility.

Never stop in peoples yards or in their driveways to rest or repair.
There have been several complaints of hikers congregating in yards to eat
lunch and to apply/remove bandages, sometimes leaving litter behind. Please
stop in a private area away from yards and driveways and carry out all your
trash.

Corrections or Additions? Please notify Jim
Ritchie, the AYH Trails Coordinator, and we will post the information
as soon as it becomes available.

Over the past several years, many AYHers have taken on a special mission:
the rehabilitation, maintenance, and preservation of the Baker Trail and
the Rachel Carson Trail. Much has been accomplished: the trails are open
and they are being used. The number of people who have helped for a day,
a weekend, a summer, a year or for several years is now in the hundreds.
These are people, not only from Pittsburgh and its environs, but also from
Butler, Kittanning, Brookville, Sheffield, Summerville, Johnsonburg, Clarion,
East Brady, Heritage, Ford City, Brockway, Leechburg, Vandergrift, Indiana,
Hershey, State College, and many other locales in and beyond Western Pennsylvania.

Our maintainers have blazed, chain sawed, brushed, cut grass, built water
bars, laid new trail, and picked up litter in the rain, in 100 degree heat,
in all four seasons. They work on weekend camp-out crews, on day trips
to strategic locations, and they work as adopt-a-trail volunteers, taking
care of their personal sections of trail. The experiences they've shared
include fall evenings at the Girl Scout Campground at Cook Forest, sitting
out the thunder and lightning at the Crooked Creek group campground; the
time we watched warily as the waters of Mahoning Creek inched their way
to the Milton Loop Campground, dinners at the Vowinckle Hotel in Cook Forest,
Stockdale's Restaurant in Dayton, and Pitzer's at Crooked Creek, the December
maintenance trip when it rained all day long in the 35 degree air and we
had to keep working frantically just to keep warm; sawing through a 2 foot
diameter fall hemlock with a bow saw in North Park; and jumping along the
Rachel Carson putting up blazes at the "transitions", among many others.

As we head into 2000, I want to take this brief moment to say 'thank
you' to all who have lent a hand (and a foot or two and a muscle or three)
in our efforts to maintain and preserve a part of our Western Pennsylvania
heritage and our common experience. Five years, ten years from now, hikers
will still be enjoying the experience of "walkin' the trail" that we helped
be there for others.

Each year, some of our adopt-a-trail volunteers on the Baker Trail and
the Rachel Carson Trail retire, moving on to the "rest" of their lives,
making it necessary to constantly be recruiting replacements. Adopters
are asked mainly to paint new blazes for us; for one year, or two years,
or whatever they can give us. AYH pays for the paint and brushes,
I send you a map and give you a tour, and you supply a day's labor (or
two) each year. If you want to do an extra day or two, you can move debris
(downed trees and branches) off the trail, or if you like to do chain saw
work, we certainly won't say no. But mainly, we need painters.

On the Baker Trail, we need volunteers to put new blazes on everything
from Mahoning Reservoir north to Bethlehem Chapel, and a couple of other
locations. On the Rachel Carson, we need volunteers to work on several
sections in Harrison Township, and others in Indiana Township.

If you would like to take a try at taking care of a wonderful trail,
getting yourself into the outdoors, give me a call and let me know your
interest: my number is (412) 828-0210-leave a message if I'm out. You can
also send email to jlr@budget.ba.pitt.edu.